


Harder Than Thought

by Clockwork



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Build up, Fluff, Gen, Multi, Season 2, The Library, post peru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 13:30:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12865536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clockwork/pseuds/Clockwork
Summary: Post Peru, they all face that working apart is harder than they thought. That doesn't help three stubborn people to open up and be honest with one another though.





	Harder Than Thought

“... the hardest part is that with the changes in temperature and how the barometric pressure keeps rising, the likelihood of the volcano erupting in the next twenty-four hours is high enough to be… concerned.”

The words trailed off, finishing in a soft whisper on the last word.

“And I’m talking to myself. Again.”

It wasn’t the first time Cassie had caught herself talking things out, only to remember she’s the only one there. Well, in this case not entirely the only one as the three hikers she had been talking to were staring at her, jaws hanging open and their eyes wide. Alone however in the fact that neither Jake nor Ezekiel were there to listen to what she had discovered and to help her plot a way to stop it all from happening. 

Cassie had agreed to go their separate ways in Peru, and had regretted it almost the instant the other two had vanished from sight. Now though whenever their paths crossed in the library, both of them seemed so happy and excited about their next mission the book gave them - for value of the term book in Jones’ case - that she never said a word. Who was she to ruin things for them if they were happier alone.

Even if the truth of the matter was, she wasn’t happier. Not in the least. No matter how much guilt she felt, or how much she questioned her place as a librarian. She wasn’t happier without them, and never would be. 

“Uhmmm, Miss Librarian?”

Cassandra startled, realizing that despite her loneliness, she was indeed not alone. 

“Hmmm? Yes? Oh yes. Right. So, first thing I’m going to need you to do is giving me the rock and the figure you took.”

“Yeah, we didn’t take nothing.”

Rolling her eyes, Cassie held her hand out, giving them her best stern face.

“Rock and figure. Come on.”

They clinked together against her palm.

“Off the mountain. Now.”

Not that she wasn’t sure she could do this but, well, just in case.

***

“Come on. It really can’t be that bloody hard.”

Except it really was that hard. It was hard balancing a bad of paper and a book and trying to copying numbers from the book to the paper to try and figure out the right computations. It was hard because his damn phone wasn’t working deep as Ezekiel was in the ground, the walls of the tomb around him blocking out all signals. It was hard because he knew, despite Peru and all the decisions made, this could be so freaking easy.

“Dammit, Cassandra. Why are you and your brain grape not here to tell me this number!”

His voice reverberated off the walls. Seemingly in answer the ground rumbled, pebbles and gravels and sand cascading down over him, spattering against the paper. His grip slipped, the book falling with a soft slap against the wet ground.

“Come on! I’m trying to help you here! If I don’t seal this tomb, someone else is going to come through here trying to do, well, exactly what I’m trying to do. Maybe you’d like to help instead of raining rocks on me?”

Even as he said the words, Ezekiel looked up. The darkness was inky and thick and he couldn’t see the top of the tunnel above his head. 

“Okay, one. No raining rocks,” he said, voice much softer this time. “And two, I said was. I was trying to. Not trying to anymore. I get it.”

Sadly, in truth, he did get it. He would be raining a lot more than rocks down on the world if he didn’t seal the tomb once more. Without Jake there though to remind him _why_ he should be a good man, or good Librarian at any rate, it wasn’t easy to remember. 

He did know though, and so he picked up the book and went back to figuring out just what the bloody hell he was doing before it was too late.

***

The surface hadn’t hardened yet, which was the only saving grace Stone was finding in that moment. No, actually, it maybe wasn’t a positive. If it had hardened, he would be approaching this as an architectural structure wherein the values of the foundation and the intricate details of the finished piece would figure into what he was trying to accomplish. 

In other words, Hulk Smash.

Sadly, with the surface constantly changing, a shimmering shield of unknown origin, he was having no luck getting past it. Direct attempts were met with subterfuge as what was once there was suddenly gone, and Jake’s own attempts at trying to trick the substance had ended, well, poorly.

Which explained the mud on the seat of his jeans and the scratch on his cheek. 

“You know, if Jones was here, he’d have beat you in about two seconds flat,” he said, speaking to, well, the shimmering shield. “You wouldn’t have stood a chance. He’d have…” He gestured with his hands in a way that might have been meant to indicate the sneaky ways of the thief. “And we’d be done here. Instead, you’re acting like a spoiled child!”

Said as the spoiled child of an adult kicked at the dirt in a gesture of frustration. 

“Fine. You know what? Fine.”

He tossed his hands up in the air, shaking his head. 

“You want it? You keep it.”

Starting to turn away before he feinted back and dove for the object hovering in the center of the space made by the curtain. For a moment he hung in the air before landing face first in the mud, the shield and, more importantly, the object, about three feet to his right.

“OH COME ON!”

***

The three slowly made their way through the back door with a blast of light and air, stumbling in one after the other. For a moment there was a pause, each taking in the other. The scorch marks, the mud, the covering of dust that left a glittering, almost glitter like trail in their wake. 

For a moment there was silence, gazes moving from one to the next without a word. Almost in unison they gave a nod, not a word as they turned away, heading to their opposite ends of the library, as it were. 

Standing by the table, Jenkins waited, hoping they would speak, to work out whatever had happened in Peru. When they didn’t, he sighed, starting to turn away. Right until his eye took it all in. The bits of burnt fabric, the muddy footprints, the way dust seemed to hang in a thin veil in the air. 

“Get back here! I’m not cleaning this up.”

Again silence. Jenkins shook his head. 

“Okay fine. I guess I am cleaning this up.”

One Librarian was hard enough, but these three… that was something else entirely.


End file.
